other things we did on this saturday.

(Rachel took the photoz, yo)
1) Rachel took us to the shop she works at, Clever Cycles. Ben rode this bike called a Bakfeit with me in the front and completely dumped me on the street. Thanks for that, babe. Then he rode a Workman with me on the front, and that went better.
2) Went to the beer store, Belmont Station. Somehow managed to not spend my entire paycheck, but did find this, which was hidden behind the counter and had a 2 bottle per person max. Yummy. We bought 10 bottles of wintry beer yummyness.
3) Oh, yeah. There was this bike race thing, the US Grand Prix of somethingorother. Yup. Rachel joined me in the pit and we had a good time. It went like this... nothing happened, then Ben brought the A bike in complaining of shifting problems. We washed it and i tried to shoulder-tune it. Barrel adjuster bottomed out and it still wasn't going where it should... the cables had stretched too much. Crap. I didn't wanna open the bolt and pull more cable in the middle of the race- what a mess- so I took it to Jose at the SRAM neutral tent. Who, of course, got it up and running. God bless him. Sent the bike out, and things were going well.
I've started to realize that being next to the fastest guys' support in the pit means they'll be gone by the time Ben rolls in and nobody will be in the way, so I parked our camp next to those from cyclocrossworld.com support. What nice guys! I mean, I've been in the pit with them before, but they were super friendly today- tips, help, generally just friendly. Shout out to them for that... it was really great. Ben came in on one lap and said his tires "felt like basketballs." The whole cyclocrossworld crew joined us in trying to figure out what that meant. It took a Park Tools pump to figure it out in the end, but it was a great puzzle to occupy us for a lap. Later, Rachel asked where we'd go after the race, and I said, 'if this keeps up, straight to the bar." Stu laughed. I really badly wanted to tell him I saw him in that 9 ball movie, but I didn't, since I guess that wouldn't be PRO. but who am I kidding? I'll tell him tomorrow.
Ben was in the mid-30's.
3) Before Ben's race I went into the bleachers near the pump track to say hi to cyclocross magazine's chief, Andrew. (check the live update from 2:19) In front of him were three very drunk people. "Are you with Ben Popper?"
"Yup."
(yadda yadda) "I hear his wife wrenches for him. Is his wife hot?"
"Um, not sure, but I think so."
"Yeah? Is she brunette or blonde?"
Then, one of the three, Keith, pukes over the edge of the bleachers.